Infrastructure Planning Failure in Neenah, Wis. Has Proptech Software Implications

Asset management and proptech software evaluation should focus not only on the active phase of the construction project, but the lifecycle of the asset. For residential developers, this includes delivery of municipal services including sewer, water and roadways that are essential if residents are to realize value from their investment in a new home.

These infrastructure elements must be planned and executed collaboratively with the municipality the development is located in. And here, streets and roadways in particular can fall between the cracks.

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One reason for this is competing budgetary priorities. According to an analysis by the Pew Charitable Trusts, between 1999 through 2023 “state and local governments fell short of the investments needed to maintain the value of their roadways by $105 billion. Over the first two decades of the 21st century, real investments in state and local roads and bridges fell, and depreciation—the annual decline in the value of infrastructure assets from wear and tear, damage, and age—outpaced spending on preservation, rehabilitation, and repair.^”

But failures to extend roadways to new subdivisions have real consequences over and above the cost of deferred maintenance on governments and taxpayers whose vehicles require additional parts and repairs.

In Jefferson County near Birmingham, Ala., for instance, tornado damage on top of unfinished subdivision roadways left residents on the hook for repairs to a road that was not completed in the first place.

But in Neenah, Wis., Mayoral Candidate Scott Becher is advocating on behalf of residents of Freedom Acres, a subdivision fully built out and almost completely sold but still has mud roads—without any relief until 2032. He fears not only for the safety of residents, but the chilling effect this planning failure will have on development velocity in the city which according to a housing study badly needs affordable rental units and single-family homes.

Municipal Capital Portfolio Problem

This situation stems not just from constrained resources, but poor planning. In any municipality, political pressure, and constrained funding make portfolio-level prioritization, funding alignment, and scenario modeling extremely important. Becher will point out that the human side of the equation is crucial. When I spoke to Scott, I joked that the quickest way to get the roads paved would be to have an alderperson buy a home in Freedom Acres.

RATHMANN: You know what I wonder when you talk to developers about this? Does it make Nenah look like an attractive place to engage in a project to for instance?

 BECHER: One of the things that the city's been having trouble with is bringing in contractors for single family homes. They see that and I mean construction builders this is a small world that this this is a small small amount of communities in the Fox cities. So, I mean, if we're not able to get some to come into our city, that completely is that we're developing a bad rep, a bad rep for not fixing our roads, not doing our infrastructure.

--Watch the full video and read the transcript, below.

But capital portfolio software is also important. These tools provide visibility and control by ranking projects by factors including contractual obligations, safety and growth. Scenario modeling helps officials determine what happens if we defer project elements across a multi-year capital plan.

This is hard enough in a corporate setting, but in a municipal setting officials must also consider bonds, tax levies, developer agreements and restricted vs unrestricted funds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oczmc9w7H_k

Capital Portfolio Software

What commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) software can address these needs?

Mastt

AI-enabled capital planning software with real-time rollups across a project portfolio.

Nakisa

Designed for managing assets including facilities and capital projects, with built-in geographic information system (GIS) integration to display maps and road statuses.

Prometheus Project Portfolio Management

Effective governance functionality with approval workflows and phase gates—plus integration with enterprise resource planning (ERP) and scheduling tools.

FULL INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

RATHMANN: Hi, this is Charles Rathman with Rathman Insights. Usually on this page you find information about construction software, enterprise software, prop tech, and that's what we're doing now, but with a twist. A friend of mine, a longtime friend from college, which is a while ago, was running to be mayor of the city of Nenah here in Wisconsin. And there's one development there, Freedom Acres, fully built out and sold subdivision that won't have roads until 2032. And it's causing all kinds of grief. So, we had a conversation about this and what can be done from a technology, hardware, software, and wetwware perspective.Let's see how it went.

And and full disclosure, I'm not getting paid for this. I'm doing this to make up to Scott for all the arguments he lost to me while we were in school. So, have you seen Have you witnessed anything like this before? I know I certainly haven’t.

BECHER: No. And I and I've talked to to to many other people who who who develop homes or builders and they haven't seen anything like this that this is a completely falling down of of the city, the developer and the builder. And this is what I'll see as as mayor is that we're kind of like the umpire. We're kind of the judge. So if they if if residents have a problem with the developer or builder, I can work to basically facilitate that.

So if they're going to tell people don't come here, that's going to have an adverse effect on on how people perceive the city. And and I was in a meeting with some of the residents and they gave an anecdote about one person who was here for a month, moved into the area, and they sold their home. They said, "I'm not going to deal with this. I don't want to have roads that are mud for the next eight years.”

This is a list of all the roads in the city that are failing  (holds up printed and highlighted table) Chuck, the ones that are in white are the some of the worst roads in Neenah, and they're not scheduled to be done in the next five years. So the first, second, fourth, 7th, 9th, 12th, 14th, 16th, 18th, and 19th roads of the top 20, which is roughly half of it is not scheduled to be done. My city has has put money in for a landfill park named Arrowhead Park, which actually the EPA in 1996 wrote about as a significant landfill with significant pollutions. They rated it in the hop 112 in 1996. So, I mean, it's all full of PCBs. And I mean there may in that particular park it's anywhere from 14 feet till they believe it's as as much as 40 feet because it was built on lake bed and marsh.

For the for the city to think about building an amphitheater or community building, you're going to break the cap and that's going to cost all kinds of millions of dollars probably to the city for any kind of cleanup for that because it's built not on soil, but it's built on paper waste. It's like building on glass. And if you and if you break a glass mirror, it will shatter. And that's the same thing that will happen with the PCBs. But I mean, yeah, as as mayor, I'm trying to focus on roads and roads in my community are just horrible.

I mean, I talked to one resident today and we had record snowfall. Neenah had 21 inches of snowfall and that 21 already out there out there in the western part part of Nenah, it works out to be 4 feet of snow. Then because the road is mud and gravel, a snowblower will be broken. A snowblower cannot pick that up. So, they're going to have to shovel four feet. I last week met met some of the residents. One of the residents, his wife was very pregnant. Well, what if she goes into labor? What if someone has a heart attack? You you have four feet of snow. I don't think that Neenah resident wants to deliver his new child on the in the bathroom.

RATHMANN: You know what I wonder when you talk to developers about this? Does it make Nenah look like an attractive place to engage in a project to for instance?

 BECHER: One of the things that the city's been having trouble with is bringing in contractors for single family homes. They see that and I mean construction builders this is a small world that this this is a small small amount of communities in the Fox cities. So, I mean, if we're not able to get some to come into our city, that completely is that we're developing a bad rep, a bad rep for not fixing our roads, not doing our infrastructure.

The sign blew down for one of the streets because of the fact that they didn't cement it in and they had high wind. The post office has talked to them about the fact that the mailboxes are all at different heights because of the fact that the road is not done. The residents need to clear it and make it so they can get mail and … get this get this Chuck. Postal trucks have been stuck in the mud out there. So, they literally have to hire a tow truck to get them.

So, not only are you having trouble getting your mail, the post office has trouble literally delivering the mail. Yeah. Unparalleled. I mean, it it's not like we're building a subdivision on Mars.

RATHMANN: So for new construction like this, because to be honest you know a lot of communities particularly in rural communities like the one that I'm in I'm in the rural township in Richland County which is very small very limited resources … but for a city to have new development and not have a reasonable timeline for extending your roadways to these new properties that are now occupied …

BECHER: You know the city has resources from 2026 to 2030. We are allotting over $6 million for improvements to IT. That's a lot of keyboards. We are allotting $8.9 million for park improvements. That's a lot of swing sets. And $1.2 million in additional new sidewalk construction. None of that. That is money that could be spent for Neenah's roads that are failing and for also this subdivision to get them a road.

RATHMANN: I look at things given my background from a construction software and technology standpoint. And what you want to have ideally is something that takes that development agreement and operationalizes it. Dumps it directly into a schedule in terms of well, gee, here's what needs to be happening when. Here's what the financial outlays are. We talk about the work breakdown structure and then the cost breakdown structure that you need to be able to look at and manage together. It sounds like that isn't really happening here.

BECHER: None of that is happening. And I mean that's where the great thing Chuck, as you know, that that technology can literally break it down. So then we can say hey what is it costing here? Okay here's a comparable here's what we can do this. Hey, let's get a schedule.

Because I mean, I think if you went to residents and said, "Here's a schedule. Okay, we'll do we'll do this in the summer of a year from now. We'll do the other half because there may be some houses that are not that we can't all get in the budget the next summer."

If you could do it as a two-year project or one-year project or or say one year we put in the road, then we put in the sidewalks. But through software you can look at all the cost and to say hey maybe we come back in five years to do the sidewalks or maybe it's not only two years but the single fact that we're looking at 2032 is I mean it might as well be 4032 for these.

Yeah,because this is where technology really helps, and this is where something that as you know technology can improve the work product. Because what if we all put this in a software and they say hey you know what based on the way the roads are designed and everything hey we think we can save $20,000 here we can save $20,000 there? Those are the things you can find out with with sophisticate ated software and artificial intelligence that will make a more doable project easier.

RATHMANN: Yeah. Well, I mean, obviously there isn't probably the type of granular management system in place that would make all of this stuff really visible and easy to manage, but it seems like the other issue is that there are other priorities. uh you know with representative government with alder people and then a mayor, you'd think that they would be able to prioritize a cool passion project against other obligations we've got to take care of first.Why do you think some of these other things have kind of floated to the top and are getting funded while things like this are are kind of  lingering out there and causing problems?

BECHER: I think I think it all goes to politics. I mean, I have seen repeatedly roads that were on the list that got dumped off the list and other roads that that they're uh that that that in fact there's one road that is farther down the list and they said, "Oh, it's a former alderman's uh residence. So, you know, that'd be nice if we could do that for him." So, do we need to get like one of the older people to buy a house in this development?Yeah, I mean it's like real estate. Everything is local. I mean, if your garbage isn't being picked up in your neighborhood, if your alderman lives there, he's going to be like, "Why isn't my garbage picked up?

Neenah has so many roads that are lacking. 36.5% of our roads are fair or failing and a lot of them are just failing This is where technology could be used because we grade Neenah roads from 1 to 10. So there's some subjectiveness in there and is a 4.1 or 4.2 two road or four road.And if four is considered failing for the department of transportation, there's to be a mayor or other people will say, "Hey, is it a 4.2? Let's do some grade shaving here." And I mean that because it's very subjective.

In Eden Prairie, they're they're in a system of one to 100. So I mean, you're not going to then be saying, "Well, I think we're 1.55 or 1.01. As you've reported and written and attended many training conferences on this, technology is basically the answer.I mean I just got an email from from one of one of the residents in a posting about this and they said they said residents of Freedom Acres say thank you for helping when no one would listen. This is absolutely unacceptable for 200 homes and you're living in mud roads and yards and a lack of safety. We'll be at city hall on Wednesday.

RATHMANN: There are also technologies and AI tools that help you identify schedule bottlenecks and avoid constraints and everything like that but if the people are not willing to consider the importance of individual needs of residents, it's not really going to do you any good, is it?

BECHER: No. No. And technology is a great tool, but literally if they're just going to run a report or do some work and it gets set put in a file cabinet or forgot that that is that that is not what needs to happen.

RATHMANN: Looking forward, what do you think the ideal solution would would be? Let's say you wind up uh you know as Neenah’s mayor, and I kind of think you will because I know what you're about and what your background and skill set and capabilities are, how do you go about reigning this in and initiating …

BECHER: We re-prioritize spending on day one. I want to look at our budget to see, and I mean for for for example, we're spending $70,000 on $700 trees and on a street, and $700 for for a small tree is an incredible amount of money. We're spending $30,000 for for example on a sign in a park that tells the time and the temperature in 2026, where probably 97% of the population have a smartphone where where they can see the temperature, they can see the time. Why am I spending $30,000 for the the equivalent of a bank clock from 1968? Um, we we have to re-prioritize a lot of our spending.

I mean, I think this is where we are basically. I'm I'm not a politician. This is the first time I ran for office, and some people said, "Oh my god, you you you you've never held elected office." But that's why I take it as a citizen. So if I was a citizen, how can I solve this issue? You get a bunch of people together in the room. You get the developer, you get the builder, you get the city's public works, you get the city's attorney. Let's look at the contract. Let's look at that. And then you get residents and you find some solutions. This is all about solution-based government. I mean, it all has to be it's all about how best can we serve our city residents. I mean, that that that's what I ultimately think you need to do.

RATHMANN: So, again, there's software for risk management. Yes. that looks at situations and identifies risks, including legal exposure, including well, yes, we have all of these contracts for for roads that we should be letting now and costs are going to go up. >> Imagine if they decide to do that >> this year with the cost of oil being off the charts as opposed to last year. I mean, you know, are we making these decisions based on actual data?

BECHER: Yeah. And I mean, I think that's where technology can help and and and there should be some opportunities that the city does look to do technology that that and that's why I want to go to Madison, sit down with the governor, the secretary of transportation to see what kind of grants we can get that we're not getting right now. What kind of demonstration projects?

So, is there some demonstration projects that we could do in Neenah that would do our roads that we could maybe say, "Hey, DOT wants to look at this software or DOT wants to do this this type of construction that's different." And I mean, previous mayors, Mayor Kent Harwood, that was one of the ways that he basically got got a substantial amount of money for for then an overpass was literally was a demonstration project because they wanted to try some new technology and other things of that sort. So, I mean, yeah, technology can be a solution, but ultimately you have to have people who are focused on technology.

RATHMANN: You know, you described this project to me earlier, Scott, and I was in disbelief, but then I saw the photos and the videos and the information. I look forward to hearing more about this because it's not just a technology thing where software might be able to give you that accurate cost breakdown structure, the work breakdown structure that tells you who needs to do what, when, how much it's going to cost, so you can have the financial resources available. It's a wetware thing, and you need people who care and have the background in public administration and government which is why I'm glad that you're running for office here and not me.

BECHER: Thank you, Chuck. Thank thank you for taking some time to to do this and listen to a very important issue to a lot of Neenah residents.

Charles Rathmann is a third party advisor and analyst helping construction and enterprise software companies explain their value proposition to the market. His relationship with Becher for Mayor is personal rather than fiduciary.